"But we were married for 22 years and you known me for 23 years!" Iris said. "Didn't I make an impact on you at all?" She stared down at the floor. Iris stared to wipe her tears with her sweater's sleeves. She was still convinced everything was her fault.

Gabriel moved even closer, wanting to hold her but unsure whether or not she would move away if he tried.  "You made a huge impact, Iris. I tried to be a good parent and to stay in touch with your sister. I did okay for a little while. But there's only so much I could do before withdrawing into my old habits. Withdrawing requires very little effort compared to trying, and grief just made it too hard to try."

Iris stared at him for a moment before turning away. She stared at the wall. She still felt like she could have done something to prevent all of this. Iris wrapped her arms around herself. She felt her heart aching.

Gabriel closed the rest of the distance between them and wrapped his arms around her. "Iris. Please don't blame yourself. What happened is in the past. It's time to move on and rebuild our lives."

Meanwhile, Adrien stood in the hallway next to the cracked door opening. He'd heard raised voices and wanted to know what was going on. He was still worried about his parents splitting up from all these fights, despite the reassurances he'd received from both that their fights were normal occurrences.

He frowned when he heard that his mother believed all this was her fault. Why did she think that? It's not like she decided to leave...

"I can't help it," she choked. Iris then broke down in more tears. "I was suspicious of the brooch. I mean I saw it come out of no where. I should have known better.." She leaned into him. "I should have known better.."

Gabriel rubbed her back, comfortingly. He hated how much this was hurting her.  "There was no way you could have known. No one would have realized a random brooch was cursed to seal anyone who touched it away. That's not how rational adults think. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Adrien bit his lip, glancing into the sewing room. He didn't want her to feel that way. He hesitated for only a moment before slowly entering the room and approaching them. Hopefully, they wouldn't be mad about him eavesdropping. "He's right. It's not your fault. We would never blame you for this."

Iris froze to the sound of Adrien's voice. He was listening to their conversation? She pushed Gabriel away and approached Adrien. Iris felt shaken up by her emotions again. He didn't blame her either? "But.. I.." She bit her lip. "I missed six years of your life.."

"But you didn't mean to," Adrien quickly protested. "It would be different if you had just decided to leave one day and not come back for so long, but you didn't have a choice. I'm just glad you're back now."

Gabriel gave Adrien a grateful look for the interruption. If Iris wasn't going to listen to him, then maybe she'd listen to their son. The one most affected by her disappearance.

Iris felt her shoulders slowly relaxed as her son spoke. He was right. She didn't have a choice. Iris gently pulled him into a hug. She closed her eyes tight as she fought away the remaining guilt. Iris then let go of her son and messed with his hair. "You're right." She glanced back at her husband. "You're right too." Iris took a deep breath. "It's not my fault."

Gabriel smiled as she finally accepted that she wasn't at fault. They could finally move forward, and she wouldn't have to carry the unnecessary burden of blame. "Good to know Adrien has more sway over your opinion than I do," he teased.

Adrien grinned. It felt good to know he could help his mother feel better. He waited quietly for his mother's retort. Sure, he could make a snide remark about his superior persuasion skills, but it was far more interesting to him to see what his mother would say.

"Well," Iris said in a teasing voice as well. "He has the cute factor going on. It's quite powerful." She gave him a wink. "You should know." She then burst out laughing and pulled both her boys into a hug. "I love you two so much. We'll be a family again. I promise."

Adrien smiled. He'd been about to ask about the cuteness comment, but his mother pulled him into a hug before he could really finish the thought. The idea of being a family again was way more important to him than a comment he didn't really understand. 

Gabriel also had a small smile on his face as he leaned into his wife's hug. "We love you too," he said, knowing speaking for Adrien in this instance wouldn't be a problem. Suddenly, he remembered something. "Why don't we go downstairs and get Adrien some cheesecake? I forgot to offer him some when we were eating lunch earlier."

Iris let go of the boys. "Oh the cheesecake!" She grabbed Adrien's hand. "How about we eat in the living room? You should be fine sitting on the couch." She guided them toward the door. "Oh and, Gabe." She glanced back at him. "You're eating it too. It's lemon cheesecake."

She then gently led Adrien toward the downstairs. There was no reason to hold his hand, but she wanted too. When they got downstairs and went into the dinning room, Iris noticed something was off. She let go of Adrien's hand and walked toward the table. Iris immediately noticed the cheescake that was meant for Elise was missing. Suddenly she heard crying and shouting coming from the kitchen.

Iris dashed into the kitchen and found the kwamis sitting on the counter. Lycca was yelling at Plagg and standing in front of a crying Pain. Iris walked over to them and put her hands on her hips. "What is going on here?"

"Iris!!" Pain said in tears and floated up to her face. "Plagg, ate all of the cheesecake and he wouldn't share!!"

"Plagg!" Adrien exclaim, walking as quickly as he comfortably could over to the counter. He grabbed his kwami by the scruff of his neck and narrowed his eyes in annoyance. "You know you're not supposed to steal food from the kitchen! And you didn't even share, you greedy kwami."

Plagg crossed his arms defiantly. "I saw it sitting there. I didn't think there would be a problem if I had some."

"I would have brought you some. I know patience isn't really your thing, but it would have been nice if you would have waited," Adrien answered.

Lycca snorted at the mention of patience. "That stupid cat only thinks about himself. And then he made Pain cry when he could have easily given her a piece. He didn't even like it as much as his precious Camembert! Said there was too much lemon in it!"

"Well, there is. Who ruins the perfect taste of cheesecake with lemon?" Plagg retorted.

Iris gently grabbed a hold of Pain and rubbed her hand to comfort her. "I did because I was hoping my husband would try it!" She then placed Pain down on the counter. "I worked hard on it. Cheesecake is a long process to make."